People of the Bronstein Lab
Lab Host
Judie Bronstein
judieb@email.arizona.edu
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Research Interests
Judith Bronstein’s lab focuses on the study of interspecific interactions, particularly on the poorly-understood, mutually beneficial ones (mutualisms). Specific conceptual areas of interest include: (i) conflicts of interest between mutualists and their consequences for the maintenance of beneficial outcomes in these interactions; and (ii) context-dependent outcomes in both mutualisms and antagonisms. Using a combination of field observations and experiments, she is examining how population processes, abiotic conditions, and the community context determine net effects of the interactions for the fitness of each participant species. She is also collaborating on theoretical and empirical investigations of (i) the fragility of mutualism in light of conservation threats and mechanisms of restoring disrupted interactions; and (ii) the causes and consequences of "cheating" within mutualism.
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Graduate Students: Host-specific associates of the lab
Michele Lanan
lanan@email.arizona.edu
Interdisciplinary Program in Insect Science |
Research Interests
I am currently studying interactions between the nectar-secreting barrel cactus Ferocactus wislizeni and various desert ants. Although by definition mutualisms involve benefits to both partners, the overwhelming majority of studies on ant-plant protection mutualisms have considered only the effects of ant-plant interactions on the plant. At first glance, the effect of plant visitation on the ants seems obvious- colonies benefit through increased food intake. However, this interaction may also have an important yet less obvious effect on colony organization and foraging behavior. Extrafloral nectar-secreting plants are dissimilar from other resources used by ants such as seeds, carrion, and arthropod prey in several important ways. Unlike these ephemeral resources, continuously secreting nectaries can only be temporarily depleted, and can persist for months or even years. They are also extremely patchy, with glands clustered on plants separated by wide expanses of nectar-free space. In my dissertation research, I am investigating how the distribution of nectar-secreting cacti influences the formation of polydomous nest structure and trail networks in Sonoran Desert ants. In addition, I am conducting behavior experiments with captive colonies to determine whether the method of recruitment ants use places limitations on the number of nectar-secreting plants that a colony can visit. |
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Grad students: Non-host-specific associates of the lab
Emily Jones
co-advised by Regis Ferriere
eijones@email.arizona.edu
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
Research Interests
I am a graduate student in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona. My research is focused on the effects of exploitation and competition on the evolution of mutualisms. However, I'm also interested in social evolution and host-parasite dynamics.
Emily's Website |
Anne Estes
co-advised by Betsy Pierson
amestes@email.arizona.edu
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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Research Interests
Coming soon! |
Kristen Potter
Co-advised by Goggy Davidowitz
kap15@email.arizona.edu Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
Research Interests
I am an integrative biologist studying proximate mechanisms and ultimate causes of oviposition choice in insects. I am particularly interested in the consequences of leaf microenvironment for egg and neonate performance. In over 99% of animal species, females simply lay their eggs and abandon them. Because eggs cannot move, such a strategy has two consequences. First, it magnifies the importance of timing and location—when and where females choose to lay their eggs constitutes a key reproductive choice. Second, it shifts much of the physiological responsibility of coping with environmental variation to the eggs and embryos. I am interested in how animals (especially eggs) evolve, physiologically and behaviorally, to cope with environmental variation, and how females make decisions regarding the timing and location of oviposition. Currently, I am using the Manduca sexta - Datura wrightii relationship as a model system to address these questions. My dissertation research involves both field and lab work, using techniques including field predation studies, measurements of leaf temperature, and egg respirometry. A large part of my research is in collaboration with Dr. Art Woods at the University of Montana. Finally, I am also interested in learning ways to make science education more accessible for the general public. I am always excited by opportunities to share my research outside of academic journals (contact me!).
*Kristen is not really green |
Bryan Helm
Co-advised by Goggy Davidowitz
bhelm@email.arizona.edu
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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Research Interests
I am currently researching the proximate causes for the cessation of larval growth in Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm, Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), using experimental surgerical techniques to test hypotheses concerning how and why organisms stop growth. Life history paradigms assume that an organism stops growth when it has enough resources to reproduce; however, the mechanistic trigger for cessation of growth remains unknown. My work is investigating if nutritional accumulation is the ultimate cause for the cessation of growth in M. sexta. Specifically, whether or not the fat bodies (centers of nutritional accumulation in insects) are involved in signalling the critical weight (or weight at which the organism commits to metamorphosis, and thus stops growth). I am also interested in understanding how different diet quality influences the organism and its physiology.
Bryan's Website |
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fledged graduate students
Fledged postdoctoral fellows
Lab inquilines
Goggy Davidowitz
Research Scientist
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
goggy@email.arizona.edu
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Research Interests
coming soon!
Goggy's website |
Nick Waser
Professor Emeritus, University of California Riverside
Adjunct Professor, School of Natural Resources, U of A
nickolas.waser@ucr.edu |
Research Interests
I spent 25 years on the Biology faculty at UC Riverside before deciding, along with my wife and colleague Mary Price, to resign my professorship and return to Tucson. During PhD work in Tucson in the 1970s we had been thoroughly seduced by the landscapes and biology of this area, and coming back had been on our minds ever since.
My research, begun as a first-gen EEBie and carried forward to the present, is on pollination biology, broadly construed. I’ve worked mostly at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in Colorado, studying ecological, genetic, evolutionary, and behavioral aspects of the pollination of native wildflowers by hummingbirds, bumble bees and other insects. Summer migration to the RMBL continues to yield fascinating new questions. Recently my colleagues and I have attempted to link the pollination stage of the plant life cycle to the demography of the resulting seed generation—a rare link in plant ecology. We’re also exploring subtle long-term effects of herbivory on pollination, mediated through changes in life history and in flowering; and how climate drives pollination success, sometimes overriding the effects of pollinators themselves.
Nick's website
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Mary Price
Professor Emeritus, University of California Riverside
mary.price@ucr.edu
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Research Interests
Mary's website |
Dispersed lab inquilines
Ted Fleming
University of Miami |
Professor of Biology at University of Miami, Ted has spent two sabbaticals in Tucson. In 1992-1993, he was supported by an NSF Mid-career Fellowship to do fieldwork on bats and cacti in Mexico, focusing particularly on pollination biology and breeding system evolution. He was associated with our lab and also worked in the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolution learning DNA techniques. Ted also spent his 1999-2000 sabbatical in Tucson, primarily at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. He was working on conservation of migratory pollinators with Gary Nabhan and crew. He’s retiring to Tucson in 2008!
Website
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Dinah Davidson
University of Utah |
Dinah, who has recently retired from the Department of Biology at University of Utah, spent 1993 with us while she learned molecular techniques to incorporate into her studies of myrmecophytic interactions in Peru.
Website
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Bill Morris
Duke University |
Bill (Professor of Biology, Duke University) was a sabbatical visitor during the Spring semester of 2003, and continues to visit frequently. During his visit, he initiated an ongoing study of the interactions between barrel cacti that bear modified spines which exude extrafloral nectar and ants that collect the nectar (learn more here). Josh Ness, Judie, and Bill have found that ant species differ in the benefits they provide to the cacti (as measured by fruit production), that ant species compete for access to cacti, and that the most common ant species at cactus nectaries fluctuates seasonally. Our future goals are to understand the causes of this seasonal fluctuation and its consequences for the cactus-ant mutualism.
Website
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Monica Geber
Cornell University |
Monica (Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell) spent 2006 with us. She worked on a variety of projects, including a community-level pollination study of bees and cacti with Ruben Alarcon, and a study of facilitation of protection in the barrel/ant system with Judie. She also really enjoyed the sun.
Website
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Theodora Petanidou
University of the Aegean |
An Associate Professor at the University of the Aegean in Greece, Theodora spent three months in 2006 in the lab on a Fulbright Fellowship. Her project was entitled Invading the Mediterranean: Pollination and Competitive Ability of an Alien Plant in its Original Habitat in Arizona, USA. She carried out local fieldwork with the aid of some University of Arizona undergraduates on Solanum eleagnifolium, a species that she’s studying in its invasive habitat in Greece.
website
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F1 Generation, Bronstein X Davidowitz
Ilan Davidowitz
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lab spokesperson and dragon expert
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